Mass Effect: Corruption
by Cerebral Anarchy
Summary: After the destruction of the Marker on Titan Station, Isaac Clarke and Ellie Langford find themselves picked up by an Earth vessel. But something is not right here.
1. Chapter 1

saac Clarke stared out the cockpit window into the vast, empty void of space stretching before them. With the destruction of the Marker, he felt as if a great weight had been lifted off his soul. The necromorphs were gone, and the fake Nicole no longer haunted him. He was finally free.

"Wait, this isn't right," said Ellie Langford, who sat next to him, in the pilot seat.

"What's not right? What happened?"

Ellie shook her head. "I don't know. I can't get through to anyone. CEC and EarthGov comm channels aren't working."

Isaac shifted in his seat. "Maybe the communications on the ship are down?"

Ellie shook her head again, turning to Isaac. "No, they're working fine. But that's not even the strangest part. Look." She hit a few buttons on the control panel, and a holographic display of the solar system appeared. "Here's where we were on the Sprawl, see?" A red, blinking dot appeared on the image of Titan. Isaac nodded. "And here-" She hit another button. "-is where we are now." The screen wavered, as the image changed.

Isaac stared at the screen, furrowing his brows. "But... That's impossible."

"Impossible or not, that's what happened. Our coordinates haven't changed, but somehow everything else has shifted." Ellie sighed. "I've run a diagnostic on the systems three times. There's nothing wrong with them."

Isaac sat back. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Marker had something to do with it," he groaned.

The two of them sat in silence for a while, contemplating their situation. It was beginning to get uncomfortable, when the comm crackled to life. Static screeched from the speakers, and only bits of the message were discernable. "... anyone on board? Alliance regulation... Identify..."

Ellie almost jumped out of her seat. "Yes yes! Hello! We're here! Do you read? You're barely coming through!"

The comm crackled again, and the voice spoke again, less garbled this time. "Attention, unidentified craft. You are in Alliance controlled space. Under Alliance regulation, identify yourselves, or you will be considered hostile."

"Alliance?" Ellie turned to Isaac, who merely shrugged at her. "Uh, my name is Ellie Langford. I'm here with Isaac Clarke. We're with CEC."

The comm was silent for a moment, before the voice buzzed back, "Come again? Did you say you were with C-Sec? What the hell are you doing in this system?"

Isaac and Ellie exchanged a confused glance. "Yes, we're with CEC. We were stranded out here after a... Mining operation."

The comm was silent again, an excruciating pause, as Isaac and Ellie waited in anticipation. Finally, the voice replied. "Okay, sit tight. We've sent a cruiser to your location to pick you up."

Both passengers let out a sigh of relief.

After a few minutes, the shuttle's scanner picked up a vessle heading towards them on an intercept course.

"I guess we're finally getting out of here," Ellie sighed.

"Maybe," Isaac said, his eyes on the approaching ship.

"Maybe? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just look, Ellie," Isaac growled, pointing out the window, "That's not a CEC ship. It's not even EarthGov."

"Then, who is it?"

The shuttle shook as the rescue ship's docking clamps latched on to it.

"We're about to find out."

Isaac got up and stood in front of the shuttle's exit hatch. Outside, there was a loud hiss, as the airlock repressurized, then a metalic whirr, the sound of a door opening. He glanced over to Ellie. "Well," he said, "Let's go meet our saviors." He opened the hatch and stepped out the door.

"Don't move!" shouted a voice, as Isaac found himself staring down the barrel of a gun. On the other end of the weapon, was a man in an amored suit, much like a RIG, but simpler and more streamlined. To the man's right, holding another pistol carefully trained on Isaac's head, was a woman in a form-fitting body suit, with a hood and mask that covered her face. And to his left was...

"What the hell?" Isaac said, taking a strp back. The thing standing there definitely wasn't human. It was tall, at least a full foot taller than Isaac, and wore a suit of heavy armor. It was grey, and looked somewhere between a reptile and an insect. Two mandibles twitched on either side of its mouth, and a scaled crest swept back from the top of its head. Two small, blue eyes watched him, unwavering, and the creature's three-fingered hand tightened around its gun.

The man standing across from Isaac smirked. "That's not very nice. Garrus may be ugly, but he's not that bad."

"Watch it, Commander," the creature replied.

"Who are you?" the man asked Isaac.

Isaac turned his attention away from the scaled creature, trying to sort his thoughts. "I, uh, I'm Isaac Clarke, CEC engineer. This is Ellie Langford, also CEC."

"CEC?" the grey creature asked. "Is that some imitation of C-Sec? Sounds like a Cerberus plot to me."

"Let's not jump to conclusions yet, Garrus. We should find out more about them, first." The man holstered his gun, and moved toward Isaac, extending a hand. "Commander Shepard, captain of the Normandy. The grumpy turian here is Garrus Vakarian, and the quarian is Tali'Zorah."

Isaac shook his hand with a look of confusion. "Turian? Quarian?"

Garrus shifted slightly. "I don't buy this, Shepard. How could they not know about turians or quarians? And they can't be backwater hicks, they're too well equipped. I've never even seen armor like that before."

Commander Shepard frowned, then turned to the quarian. "Tali, check their files."

"Right." The quarian held up her right arm, and an orange gauntlet appeared around it, some sort of holographic interface. She began tapping at it, and a small light on Isaac's RIG began blinking. "Hold on," she said after a moment, "This can't be right."

"What's wrong?" Shepard asked.

"It must be a glitch, I'll run it again." After another pause, she shook her head. "Something must be wrong here. It's saying he was born in 2465."

"Nothing's wrong with that," Isaac said, "That's when I was born."

Garrus made a disgruntled noise. "You really expect us to believe you were born almost 300 years in the future?"

"I don't know what world you're living in, but the year is 2511," Ellie commented. "I've got it right here on my RIG."

"You're lying!" Garrus countered. "The Alliance regulation calendar puts the date at 2186 in Earth-time. Now, if you're done making excuses, I think-"

"Hold it!" Commander Shepard interrupted. "We're not going to get anywhere by being hostile, Garrus. Something's not right here and we need to find out why, but that's not going to happen if we're at each other's throats. Back down, and we'll do this reasonably."

The turian looked annoyed, but he took a step back and lowered his weapon. "Fine. If you think it's the right thing to do, Shepard."

"First things first, I think we should get them up to the med-bay and have Dr. Chakwas take a look at them. Give them some first aid, and see if we can find out anything about them."

Shepard led the two of them up an elevator and on to the crew deck. They passed by a small mess hall, and several human crew members looked up to watch them pass. As Isaac looked around at the ship, he was reminded of the design of the USG Planter Crackers, only sleeker and brighter. The med-bay door slid open as they approached, and an energetic voice reached their ears.

"No, no. Adaptation would cure symptoms, but would effect secondary organs. Shutdown of all redundant systems. Not lethal, but could compromise krogan health, damage immune system further... Unacceptable."

The voice was coming from an orange, amphibian-like creature standing at a computer console. It was wearing a clean, white suit of light armor, and several scars marked his head. His fingers blurred over a virtual keyboard as he talked to himself in a one-sided conversation.

"Mordin," Shepard spoke.

The alien turned. "Ah, Shepard! Good to see you. Genophage cure progressing nicely. Still working on side effects, but viable cure is within reach. Something you need?"

"Where's Dr. Chakwas?"

"Crew quarters. Said she would give me room to work. Considerate of her. Perhaps I could be of assistance?"

"Maybe you could. We've got a bit of a problem with these two here." Shepard gestured to Isaac and Ellie. "Found them floating in a shuttle. Records for them say they were born 300 years from now."

Mordin perked up. "300 years? Interesting. Time travel perhaps? Possible with faster than light travel. But improbable. Who are they?"

"My name is Isaac Clarke, CEC engineer," Isaac answered, "and this is Ellie Langford."

"Mordin Solus. Salarian scientist, former STG." Mordin held his hand up to Isaac, and a holographic interface, similar to the one Tali used appeared. "Interesting. No omni-tool, but an integrated system connected to nervous system. Identification. Communications to other users. Vital signals monitor. Displayed on back. Counterproductive unless working in groups. Not as efficient as an omni-tool, but effective nonetheless."

Mordin took a deep breath, then waved the omni-tool over Isaac again. "Hm. Very interesting." He pointed at the stasis module on Isaac's wrist. "This device. What does it do?"

Isaac held the device up for the salarian to see. "It lets me use telekinesis and project stasis fields."

"So you're a biotic, then?" Shepard asked.

"What's a biotic?"

Mordin examined his omni-tool. "Device allows for manipulation of biotic fields, even if user has no biotic ability. Fascinating."

Shepard took a step forward. "If that device can let someone with no biotic abilities use those powers, imagine what it could do for an actual biotic. This kind of technology would be invaluable to the Alliance. It could help turn the tide against the Reapers."

"Yes, yes. Will study it. Send plans to Alliance. Later, though. First, examine anomaly in this human."

"Anomaly?" Isaac asked, a bit worried.

"Yes, anomaly. Very odd. Never seen this before."

"What is it?" asked Shepard.

Mordin paused for a moment. "All creatures in galaxy are exposed to element zero. Relays scattered throughout galaxy. Ore in planets. Eezo drive cores. Biotics. Inescapable. So, all creatures in galaxy exposed to element zero radiation. Small amounts in every living thing. But this human..." He took a deep breath. "None. At current age, would have had to have come into contact at some point. Impossible. Yet results do not lie. Troubling."

"Troubling?" Shepard asked. "What do you mean?"

"Results imply he came from another galaxy. Perhaps different universe."

"Wait," Isaac interrupted, "You're trying to tell us that we're in another universe? That's impossible. It's crazy."

"Crazy, yes. Highly unlikely, yes. But impossible, no. Currently, only possible explanation. Will have to study this more in depth. Most intriguing."

Isaac shook his head, putting his hand to his temple. "This... This is crazy. Necromorphs are one thing, but a different freaking dimension? It's making my head hurt."

"It is quite an enormous concept to accept," came a robotic voice from the ceiling, "I would suggest taking a rest in the port observation deck."

"What was that?" Ellie asked, looking around.

"My name is EDI," the voice said. "I am this ship's artificial intelligence."

"Artificial intelligence? We don't have technology anywhere near that where we come from," Ellie stated, awed.

"That's a good idea," said Shepard, "You two can wait there for now. I need to go inform Admiral Hackett of what happened here. Mordin, I'll let you work."

"Good talking with you, Shepard," Mordin chirped, "Isaac, Ellie."

"The observation deck is down the hall on the port side of the ship," Shepard told the two of them as he got in the elevator. "I'll assume you can find it."

As the doors closed, Ellie turned to Isaac. "He's pretty casual about having two completely unknown people on his ship. I mean, he just left us down here, alone."

Isaac turned, heading for the observation deck. "If I was in his position, I'd be pretty casual too. After all, they're the ones with the weapons. Either way, I just need to relax right now."

The door slid open, revealing a small but comfortable room. A poker table occupied one end of the room, while a small bar was nestled into the other end. A large window spanned the remaining wall, giving an uninterrupted view of the dark void outside the ship. A table sat in the center of the room, along with several chairs scattered around it. Isaac immediately slumped into one of the chairs, putting his head down on the table. Ellie stood in front of the window, gazing out into space.

"Another universe," she spoke, "I can hardly believe it..."

Isaac sighed, closing his eyes. "At least we never have to deal with those undead freaks again."

-End Chapter 1-


	2. Chapter 2

When Isaac opened his eyes, the room was dark. Someone had dimmed the lights. He rubbed at his eyes, wondering how long he had been asleep.

"Ellie?" he called. There was no answer. He lifted his head, looking around the room. "Ellie?" She wasn't there.

Isaac stood up, shaking his head. He walked to the door, and it opened as he approached. He stood there, staring around at his unfamiliar surroundings.

Opening up his RIG communications network, he said, "Ellie? You there?"

"Oh, Isaac, you're up."

"Yeah, I am. How long was I out?"

"A few hours. I turned the lights out for you."

"Yeah, thanks. Where are you?"

"Down one deck. Engineering. Isaac, this ship is amazing! I've never seen anything like it. It's smaller, faster, and a lot more powerful than anything in EarthGov's fleet. You've got to come see!"

"They just let you wander around the ship?"

"Well, the commander seems to trust us. He's allowed us access to most of the ship. Now, come down here and see this engine! I guarantee you won't regret it."

Isaac sighed, and a passing crew member shot him a glance. "Fine, I'll go look at the engine."

"Great. Just take the elevator down one floor, and it's the first door on your left."

Isaac approached the elevator, the door opening as he neared. At least the doors seemed to work the same way in this universe, it seemed. A small, holographic menu blinked to life in front of him, and he selected the option for deck four. The doors slid shut, and the elevator hummed softly for a few seconds, before the doors reopened. Isaac stepped out into a small hallway. On either side of the elevator was a door, so he entered the one on the left. Beyond it was another door and a staircase leading down. Going through the door, he found himself in a room filled with conversation and the hum of the ship's engine.

"Isaac, over here," Ellie called. She stood near a console, talking with Tali. As Isaac approached, she grinned at him. "This ship is incredible."

"It does seem pretty nice," he agreed.

"And you haven't even seen the drive core yet. It uses something they call Element Zero. Isaac, they've already mastered faster-than-light travel! This place is centuries ahead of our universe."

Our universe. Isaac still wasn't used to hearing that yet. "Yeah, it's really amazing."

"This ship is the most advanced vessel in the galaxy," Tali commented. "If you only go by this, you might overestimate the rest of our technology."

"Well, you may be right," Ellie said, "but where we're from, it takes months just to travel to another planet." She sighed. "Here, you can travel across the entire galaxy in a matter of seconds."

Isaac turned to Tali. "I thought faster-than-light travel was impossible."

"Normally, it is. The only way we can accomplish it is by using Element Zero. It's a rare material with incredible properties." Tali turned and led them down a short catwalk, at the end of which, the drive core sat glowing. "When an electrical current is run through it, it can change the mass of the space-time field around it. A positive current increases the mass, while a negative current decreases it. Basically, it allows us to negate the mass of the ship enough to reach faster-than-light speeds."

"That sure is handy," said Isaac. "Is there anything else it can do?"

"Any number of things. We can use it to create shields and barriers. It powers the projectiles of our weapons, and the field it generates can even be used as a weapon itself."

"One element can do all that?" Ellie said, amazed. "Now I can imagine how your technology has advanced so much further than ours." She turned to gaze at the drive core.

"Engineer Clarke," came EDI's voice seemingly out of nowhere.

Isaac looked around, bewildered for a moment, before remembering the AI. "Oh, uh... Yes?"

"There is a situation in the cargo bay. I believe your presence there would be beneficial."

"A situation? What kind of situation? And why should I be there?"

"My sensors have detected a burst of plasma energy discharged in the bay. I believe it came from one of the devices on board your ship."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I should check it out." He turned back to Tali. "Uh..."

"Deck five."

"Thanks."

Isaac jogged to the elevator then headed to the bottom deck. As the doors opened, the sound of a heated argument reached his ears.

"Look what you've done, Vega! You blew a hole in the side of my shuttle!"

"How was I supposed to know it was loaded?"

"That's my point! You shouldn't be touching it at all. Now I'm gonna have to repair this damage. God, this will take days."

"Lighten up, Esteban. I thought you liked fixing that thing up."

"There's a difference between fixing it up and actually fixing it. Now put that thing down before you do any more damage."

Two men stood in the center of the cargo bay, arguing with each other. The larger man held Isaac's plasma cutter and waved it around wildly as he spoke, while the other attempted to remove the device from the first's hands.

"What are you doing with that?" Isaac asked, loud enough to make sure they could hear him.

Both men turned, and the one holding the weapon shrugged casually. "Oh, sorry. Is this yours?"

Isaac frowned and looked over at the shuttle. A smoking scorch mark showed where the weapon had 'hit. "Yes, that's mine. What are you doing with it?"

"Hey, calm down, man. I was just looking at it."

Isaac shot a look at the hole in the shuttle. "You could have killed someone with that. Hand it over before you damage something else."

The man sighed. "Fine. Here, take it." He tossed the weapon to Isaac, who barely managed to grab it before it hit the ground. "You guys are too uptight." With that, the man sauntered away to his own little corner of the cargo bay, and began busying himself with something on his workbench.

Isaac pinched the bridge of his nose as he clipped the plasma cutter on to his belt, then turned to the other man, who was frowning mournfully at the shuttle.

"Hey, sorry about that," Isaac offered as an apology. "I should have made sure the weapons were secured in the ship."

"It's no problem," The man replied. "He probably would have found it anyway. It'll be a pain, but give me a few hours, and this bird'll be ready to fly again." The man turned to Isaac and held out his hand. "Steve Cortez. Normandy shuttle pilot and requisitions officer."

Isaac shook Cortez's outstretched hand. "Isaac Clarke. CEC engineer."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Clarke."

Isaac groaned. "Ugh, don't call me Mr. Clarke. It makes me feel like an old man. Just call me Isaac."

Cortez smiled. "And you can call me Steve. The muscle-bound blockhead over there is Lieutenant James Vega."

"I can hear you, Esteban," James called back.

"That's why I said it," Steve countered. He turned back to the shuttle, shaking his head. "Honestly, I'm surprised that there's this much damage to the shuttle. I know the barriers were down, but still… That must be one hell of a weapon."

Isaac glanced down at the plasma cutter on his belt. "It's not even a weapon, really. It used to be a tissue laser, for surgery. But…" Images of the necromorphs crawling around Titan Station flashed in his mind. "The situation called for a different use."

Steve looked at Isaac, frowning, but decided to leave the subject alone. "A plasma cutter? That sounds more like geth technology. Most of our weapons use mass fields to fire."

"Tali mentioned something about that earlier. How does that work?"

"Well, I'm probably not the best person to ask about that. If you want to know about weapons, you should talk to Garrus. If you want, I'll have him take a look at your weapons. He might be able to modify them to work with thermal clips."

Isaac rubbed the back of his head. "I don't know if that would be worth the effort. I've had experience fighting, but I'm no soldier."

Steve shrugged. "It wouldn't hurt to have him take a look at them anyway. If we had weapons like this on the front lines…" He looked back at the shuttle. "It might make a huge difference."

"Against the Reapers," Isaac mused.

"So you've heard about them?"

Isaac shook his head. "Only what they're called. I don't know anything else about them."

"They're a race of sentient machines, bent on exterminating all life in the galaxy," Steve explained. "They… They killed my husband." His expression became pained. "I was there when they took him. I could have helped him, but he wanted to make sure I got away safely. He sacrificed himself for me." His voice faltered. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"I understand," Isaac said, putting a hand on Cortez's shoulder. "I had a girlfriend, Nicole, working on a starship, the Ishimura. There was a problem, and the ship went dark. They sent in a repair crew to see what happened. I was part of that crew. When we found the Ishimura, we found out that the entire crew had been slaughtered and turned into these creatures called necromorphs. I had to fight my way through them to survive, while the rest of my crew died. For all I know, one of the necromorphs I killed was Nicole. She was never found."

The two men stood there in uncomfortable silence, sharing each other's pain, until a voice broke through their silence.

"Engineer Clarke," said a voice, not EDI this time, "Commander Shepard would like to see you in the War Room on Deck 2."

"Well then, I guess I'd better go," said Isaac. He held out a hand to Cortez. "It was nice to meet you, Steve."

Cortez grasped his hand, giving it a firm shake. "And you as well, Isaac. See you around."

"See you, _brujo_," James called from his corner.

Isaac looked back at him, rolling his eyes, then proceeded into the elevator. When the doors opened, he found himself looking at a large, spinning hologram of the galaxy. A woman standing next to it at a console looked up and smiled at him.

"Ah, you must be Engineer Clarke," she said.

"Just Isaac is fine. Are you the one who called me up here?"

The woman smiled again. "Yes, that was me. I'm Specialist Traynor. I monitor all the signals going in and out of the ship. Commander Shepard is waiting for you in the War Room." She pointed to a door to Isaac's right. "Just through that door, past the scanner and down the hall."

"Right, thanks." Isaac went through the door and passed through the scanner. The two crewmembers guarding the door didn't even seem to notice him as he went through. He passed by a small conference room of some sort, then turned the corner to find Commander Shepard waiting for him.

"There you are. Follow me."

"Just one thing after another, today," Isaac muttered, but he followed anyway.

Shepard led him through a circular room filled with consoles, and a large hologram of some sort of device.

"What's that?" Isaac asked, pointing at the hologram.

Shepard glanced at him, then at the model. "We've been calling it the Crucible. It's a Prothean device that we believe is capable of defeating the Reapers."

Isaac stopped, folding his arms. "And just what are the Reapers? I don't really know much about them, aside from the fact that they're machines that want to destroy everything in the galaxy. If I'm going to be living in this universe, I'd like to know what's trying to kill me this time."

Shepard turned to Isaac, then hit a button on the console. The image of the Crucible was replaced with a model of a large, insect-like machine. It had a long, curving carapace of a purple metal. Five large legs supported it at the bottom, and another six, smaller legs were curled up underneath it. "That," the Commander said, "Is a Reaper." He tapped the console again, and another image appeared. This one was smaller, with stouter legs. The images began to cycle through images of ships and distorted creatures.

"The Reapers are a race of sentient machines that have been around for millennia. Every 50,000 years, they emerge from the dark space outside the galaxy to eliminate all organic life. They harvest the civilizations of the galaxy to create new Reapers. Those that aren't harvested are turned into husks." The image changed to a distorted human figure with glowing tubes wrapping around its body. "Husks are dead organic life-forms, bonded with synthetic technology to obey the Reapers." Shepard leaned against the console as the image changed back to the Crucible. "We've been fighting the Reapers all across the galaxy. We've been managing to hold them back as best we can, but they're starting to overtake our forces." He sighed. "Right now, our only hope is to be able to build the Crucible and use it against the Reapers." He stood back from the console and fixed his gaze on Isaac. "We've got to use every advantage we can get in this war. Now come on, Admiral Hackett wants to see you."

Isaac followed the Commander into a small side room where a large, glowing platform took up half of the room. Shepard walked over to a console and activated it. The platform flickered and lit up with the image of a scarred man in a military uniform. The man stood at attention and saluted. "Commander," he said.

Shepard returned the salute. "Admiral Hackett."

The admiral took a more relaxed stance and put his hands behind his back, looking over at Isaac. "So, this must be Isaac Clarke."

Isaac sighed. "Is there anyone here who doesn't know about me?"

"You're from another universe, son. That's bound to attract attention. We've studied the schematics for your telekinesis module, and it's already given us a huge advantage in the field. Our biotic soldiers are several times more powerful than they were before, thanks to that technology." He turned to Shepard. "However, there is also the matter of the artifact you picked up, Commander. Our scientists have been studying it, but we can't seem to figure out anything about it. It doesn't seem to be Reaper or Prothean in design. We can't make heads or tails of it."

Isaac shook his head. "I'm sorry, but what is this artifact, and why does this have anything to do with me?"

"I was thinking that this artifact may have come into our universe when you did, somehow. Perhaps whatever brought you here brought it as well."

For some reason, this sent a shiver down Isaac's spine. "This… Artifact. What does it look like?"

Hackett paused for a moment, as if thinking. "It was a large chunk of stone. Deep black, and covered with symbols that none of our translators could comprehend. Why, does it sound familiar to you?"

Isaac put a hand to his forehead, where he could already feel sweat forming. He stumbled back until he hit the wall behind him and slid down it until he reached the floor.

"Isaac?" Shepard asked. "What's wrong?"

"The… The Marker… It followed me."


End file.
